1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of bioinformatics, genetic information and online marketing. In particular, the present invention relates to computer systems, methods, and products for providing direct to consumer genotype-based products and services typically provided over networks such as the Internet. In particular the present invention relates to generating one or more electronic identifiers associated with one or more genetic markers such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (commonly referred to as SNP's) and/or sequence calls or signatures of a plurality of sequence calls. The electronic identifiers may be associated with one or more “look-up” tables or other similar types of data structure that enable the identifiers to be queried and associated with search results and/or one or more related products or services.
2. Related Art
Research in molecular biology, biochemistry, and many related health fields increasingly requires organization and analysis of complex data generated by new experimental techniques. These tasks are addressed by the rapidly evolving field of bioinformatics. See, e.g., H. Rashidi and K. Buehler, Bioinformatics Basics: Applications in Biological Science and Medicine (CRC Press, London, 2000); Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Gene and Proteins (B. F. Ouelette and A. D. Baxevanis, eds., Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2d ed., 2001), both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Broadly, one area of bioinformatics applies computational techniques to large genomic databases, often distributed over and accessed through networks such as the Internet, for the purpose of illuminating relationships among alternative splice variants, protein function, and metabolic processes.